Maxime de la Rocheterie on Marie-Antoinette

"She was not a guilty woman, neither was she a saint; she was an upright, charming woman, a little frivolous, somewhat impulsive, but always pure; she was a queen, at times ardent in her fancies for her favourites and thoughtless in her policy, but proud and full of energy; a thorough woman in her winsome ways and tenderness of heart, until she became a martyr."

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

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Thursday, January 16, 2014

Though separated by nearly two hundred years, the cultural landscape
between 19th century France and 21st century America is also similar.
Mentioned here are the relevant contours of 19th century France; the
thoughtful reader can make the connections with present day America.
Father Vianney arrived at his parish a generation after unparalleled
cultural and political upheaval in France. The Revolution and subsequent
Terror, the hardships under Napoleonic rule, the widespread devastation
of churches, religious communities and practices, and the outright
attack on the Church in France herself, were still fresh in the minds of
many. The Revolution’s spawn of secularism had permeated much of French
society, with even the smaller villages feeling its reverberations. God
and the Church were relegated more and more to the margins of French
life.

Upheaval was also felt within the Church in France. In the wake of
the Revolution, the faithful were often confused about the relationship
between faithfulness to the Church and allegiance to the State. The
State had sought to subsume the Church, going so far as to force the
clergy to take an oath to the State, effectively making the priest more
of an employee of the State than a servant of the Gospel. The faithful,
moreover, were scandalized when many priests succumbed to this pressure,
including the then pastor of Ars, Father Saunier. Educated at the
Sorbonne, Ars’s pastor took the oath in 1791 and the spiritual
unraveling of the parish in Ars began. The next year the parish church
was looted and Father Saunier left the priesthood. The sanctuary of the
parish church was converted into a club where the “free thinkers” of the
area held their meetings. Though restoration of the Church in France
began in 1801, tension and confusion about the clergy still existed.
Which priests could one trust? What of the priests who took the oath?
What about those priests who refused and suffered or were even killed?
France in the 19th century also was experiencing a priest shortage.

The religious ignorance and indifference spawned by the Revolution
had their effect on the life of Ars. People frequently missed Sunday
Mass, and work dominated the lives of most. The tiny settlement boasted
of four taverns where the livelihoods of many families were squandered. The
very people who could not find time for Sunday Mass spent themselves in
festivities, lasting far into the night and ending in the usual evils.
Religious ignorance was rampant in both children and adults.
Ironically the efforts of the Revolution to replace worship of the
living God with the goddess “Reason” reaped the fruit of widespread
illiteracy, and only a minority in Ars could read. Ars, however, was no
better or worse off than the other villages in France. Remnants of faith
and morals were still found scattered about among some of the families.
The faith and the priesthood were not despised, just ignored. The
impact of the Revolution and Terror, and the poor example or lack of
stable clergy left the parish unsettled, ignorant, confused and at best
lukewarm.

Despite the many similarities to our own time, four primary
differences exist between St. John Vianney’s time and our own. One
obvious difference is that Jansenism, with its harshness, scrupulosity
and anxiety, was still felt within the faithful. The heresy had been put
down, but its bitterness could still be tasted in the spiritual
groundwater. A second difference was respect for priests, and their
authority, still existed in the culture. A third difference was the
local government, embodied in the mayor and municipal counselor, who
supported his efforts in the religious and moral regeneration of the
village because it promoted the common good. Fourthly, differences
existed within the Church between then and now. For example, today’s
“culture of dissent” among some Catholic quarters and the problem of
liturgical abuse were not so much part of Vianney’s time. (Read more.)

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